Today I’ll share a few finds from couple of weeks before my move. This pile in front of a recently sold home contained a bunch of artsy things.
I saved a bit of stuff, including this artistic light box thingy. I’d bet that it’s someone’s c. 1975 university art project, but it’s kind of cool regardless. I’ll see if the yard sale shoppers are interested.
I found a bunch of posters and prints, my favourite of which is this unsigned (maybe silk screen?) print that looks to depict an evening in Montreal in the late 80s or so. I’m getting it framed by a friend, so it should be appearing on my wall soon enough. Maybe I’ll share a picture here when it’s done.
I also found this Montreal “baker” license plate from 1963. I couldn’t find any others like it online, much like the 1940 “garage” license plate I found that ended up selling at auction for 536$ around this time last year. (I guess I only mentioned this on my Instagram, there is still a picture there if you want to see – just scroll down my feed).
I’m not sure why a baker would have a special plate. It’s about 8cm narrower than your standard license plate, but the screw holes are right in the corners vs. somewhat closer to center on a usual plate, so it must have been for a car. A license for the wall probably would have been more detailed and also made of paper or cardboard.
Regardless, the license plate market is a hot one, so I feel comfortable doing auctions when I have something unusual. I don’t expect this to go for nearly as much as the garage one, but it does have some bids and the auction ends tonight. Who knows, maybe a couple of bakers will bid it up.
Elsewhere, I know I talked about garbage empathy in my last post, but it’s hard to feel it when the perpetrators are most likely clueless rich kids who don’t understand the value of anything.
I saved a bunch of clothes, most of which I donated. I also saved a bit of jewelry, the nicest pieces being a silver chain, silver Tateossian skull cufflinks, and another pair of cufflinks that appear to be unmarked 14k gold.
I also saved some nice glass pieces, including a Lalique piece on the right. The middle one is signed as well, but it’s hard to make out by who. On the left is a nice crystal box, which has a couple of chips but is good for the yard sale.
Maybe my favourite find there was this antique-looking ornate shelf. I’m not sure what’s more surprising, that it ended up on the curb, or that it survived the voyage. If I recall correctly it was wrapped up in a towel, which helped protect it during the trip to the curb. It is near flawless, besides some flea-bite chips in the stone and a missing screw that doesn’t effect it all that much. I’m very tempted to keep this for myself!
One last find from somewhere else. I hadn’t found a high-end watch box in a while, but I picked this Omega box up a couple weeks back and quickly sold it for 150$. I hope I find more, these boxes are easy to list, quick to sell, and simple to ship.
Otherwise, moving has made me re-evaluate some of my possessions. Marie Kondo is a bit of a meme at this point, but there is some simple wisdom to the “spark joy” criterion. Plus, while I have a love of objects, I also hate having too many of them. So, some of the things I’ve been holding onto for years (often thinking, “I’ll find a place for this once I live on my own”) are ending up in the yard sale pile, or are going back to the curb (usually in such a way as others will find it). It also makes me want to clear more ancient finds from the garage, in particular the “One of a million” series junk, some of which has been sitting around for 6 years now. It’s a complicated job because there’s a lot of cool stuff, a lot of which is (ironically) hard to photograph, but I’ll get it done.